Sunday, 7 March 2010

What future technology am I afraid of?

I see most technological advancement as a good thing, so I thought I'd try to identify what future technology I am afraid of. So far, the only things I have come up with are:
  • people-monitoring technologies that will infringe privacy and facilitate a totalitarian state;
  • weapons (chemical, biological, nuclear, etc) that will cause great harm if in the wrong hands (note: most hands are the wrong hands);
  • robots - if they try to take over; and
  • virtual reality - if we create a virtual world so responsive to our needs that no-one wants to live in the real world, and civilisation crumbles.
Society adapts to accomodate new technologies, so we will adapt to these technological advancements (we already have CCTV without decent into totalitarianism, and we already have World of Warcraft without everyone being addicted to online games). However, there may come a point, particularly in these areas, where society cannot adapt sufficiently and our civilisation is undone.

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